Our Mission is to provide our youth with the best possible opportunity to HAVE FUN while playing the sport of Ice Hockey. We will do this by: Providing a positive atmosphere for our youth to learn and grow through the activities associated with skating a

WYH strongly recommends players play at their appropriate age level, but will allow for exceptions when the board of directors determines it is in the best interest of the player and the program for a player to move them up a level.

Criteria to “play up”:

The player’s ability alone is not enough to move a player up a level. It must be determined by the board of directors to be in the best interest of the entire program, not just the individual in question.

A player will not be allowed to “play up” if it means an age appropriate player at that level will be cut.

A player will not be permitted to move up more than one birth year in age. For example, a first year Squirt cannot be moved to the Pee Wee level but a second year Squirt could.

A player requesting to play-up must be selected to play for the A/Highest Tier older level team only. Players requesting to play-up are not eligible to be selected for lower Tier teams at the older level. The only exception to this is if the program requests a player move up because numbers are needed on that team.

Requests to try out for an older age group must submitted 14 days prior to scheduled tryout or within 5 days of public announcement of tryouts, whichever is later. This request requires board approval to allow the player to try out for the older level. The decision to allow a player to try out for an older team-up will be based on an evaluation of the player’s skill and ability to contribute to the older team and the player’s emotional and physical maturity level compared to the older team’s players. It is at the board’s sole discretion to allow a player to try out for a higher level.

If the board approves a player to try out for an older level, the player requesting an opportunity to play-up must pay a tryout registration fee and try out for BOTH his/her actual age level AND the level they would like to move up to. For example, a Mite level player whose play-up tryout request is approved must register and try-out for both Mite and Squirt level teams.

The play-up player must be projected to be “very competitive” player on the older team. If the player is not projected to be “very competitive” player on the older team, or will likely be among the bottom players of that team, then it is highly questionable whether playing up is truly in the best interest of that player or the team.

“Play-up” approval is for current year only and has no bearing on future “play-up” requests.

WYH approval to “play up” is at the sole discretion of WYH of directors and the decision is final. There is no appeal process.

All “play up” approvals must comply with Mass Hockey rules and are subject to their approval.